In what appeared to be a fat finger error, a Bear Stearns trader who intended to place a sell for $4 million placed an order for $4 billion instead. The erroneous trade occurred at 3:40 p.m., sending U.S. markets into a tailspin on a day when stocks had been trading lower. The Dow fell by 183 points to hit a day low of 7697 before recovering a bit and closing at 7756.

"The future is bound to surprise us, but we don't have to be dumbfounded."

--Kenneth Boulding A near-trillion-dollar bailout of the euro by the E.U. has us blasting higher to start week. While many market players were looking for some sort of aid package to rescue Greece, few anticipated a comprehensive and massive program to shore up the euro and prepare for rescue of other countries with sovereign debt issues.

On Friday, many were concerned that the E.U. would have difficulty even finalizing a package for just Greece, so the news of agreement over such a huge plan has caught many by surprise. If early indications hold, we will have the largest gains of the year.

The big question now is whether this is the start of yet again another big V-shaped move back up to new highs. So far, we are set to recoup a big portion of last week's loss, but will all the worries and concerns that weighed on the market now be forgotten? Is the uptrend that looked dead last week back on? Is it time to load up again and ride the train to new highs?

There are no easy answers here. The market did a superb job of punishing bulls that stayed in too long last week, and now it is frustrating the cautious folks who took stops and moved into cash last week.

It should come as no surprise that this big move occurs over the weekend and provides no easy entry points. A very large chunk of the gains since the lows in March 2009 have occurred on Mondays, and much of that was in the gap up opens on Monday mornings. If you exclude Monday action from this market, the gains are significantly smaller.

While that is an interesting statistic, it doesn't help us very much in dealing with this big gap up. Our choices here are pretty limited. We can chase this massive move and hope that it keeps going, or we stay patient and hope to find some good entries on pullbacks.

One approach many traders use is to wait for an hour or so and then do some buying if the market makes an intraday high. The thinking is that a new high after the first hour shows that momentum is building and the risk of a gap and fade open has passed.

A lot of market players are very out of position this morning, and some are going to panic buy. We all know about this market's propensity for V-shaped bounces back to the highs, so there will be those who are willing to chase this strength just so they aren't left behind.

I'm not going to pretend to know what this market is going to do from here. Obviously, very few market players are well positioned for this big whipsaw, so we need to see how the mood develops after the initial spike up open. Early pullbacks are likely to be bought as underinvested bulls try to put money to work, but it is the action later in the day that will provide the best insight into the health of the market.

I'm sitting with a very heavy level of cash, and my game plan is to say focused on individual stocks that I favor and to look for entries after the initial frenzy subsides. Most of the charts are a mess after last week, and the gap up open this morning is going to give us some very odd formations. There wouldn't be any great technical setups this morning, but the market could easily keep on running.

Keep your emotions in check, and don't act rashly if you holding a high level of cash. Chasing this huge open could work, but it isn't the best strategy for the prudent trader to employ. The market will calm down fairly fast and then we can make more rational decisions about the action to take. Keep an open mind and be ready to move as the action evolves. -------------------------------Briefing.com:Ülespoole avanevad:

Many names are seeing early premarket strength with the futures pointing to sharply higher open...

Other news: SPWRA +9.4% (announces $75 mln loan commitment from IFC, a member of the World Bank; ), BDSI +8.9% (announces approval of ONSOLIS in Canada), XCO +7.3% (announces agreement with BG Group for joint development of Appalachian assets), YONG +5.8% (begins construction of new production facility; Cap ex for the new facility is expected to be $15 mln to $20 mln ), PG +2.8% (Cramer makes positive comments on MadMoney).

BP on Monday disclosed $350 million in costs so far from its Gulf of Mexico oil leak, with the spill entering its 19th day since a giant oil rig sank and caused an estimated 5,000 barrels of oil a day to empty into the Gulf's water.

After failing to cap the leak with a 100-ton containment dome, BP (BP 49.32, +0.26, +0.53%) said Monday it will attempt to lower a smaller dome over the main leak point. The larger structure didn't work because it became clogged with ice-like crystals as a result of cold temperatures and crushing ocean pressure a mile beneath the surface. (marketwatch)

We think it is possible that the correction is not fully over yet, and that the ECB may be pushed to do outright QE. But with the recent policy initiatives, and, as of Friday, 24% upside to our 1280 MSCI Europe target on a 12-month view, we’d rather be buyers then sellers. (loe pikemalt Draaisma nägemuse kohta siit)

Moody's reviews all rated Portuguese banks for possible downgradeMoody's says Portugal downgrade to AA3 possible, downgrade to A1 possible; will complete review of Greece, Portugal in next four weeks or so - CNBC